Posted by Steven Simpson on March 21, 2004 at 12:33:23:
I was on Marathon Key in February and spotted a small, compact, hawk on power lines. It had an all-white breast and belly (from under the bill to under-tail coverts; wings and back appeared uniformly dark; head dark, no mustacial stripes, etc. I've heard that in southern Florida only a Short-tailed hawk (light morph) has a clean all-white belly. This hawk had faint stripes on the feathers of its upper legs though. Can I safely ID this bird as a Short-tailed? S. Simpson -- Boston